St. Paul Pioneer Press tech blog by Julio Ojeda-Zapata

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St. Paul Pioneer Press tech blog by Julio Ojeda-Zapata

Facing the música: I select a Google Reader replacement

Google Reader fanatics who have been in denial for the past few months now have to face the música: The RSS reader is due to go dark on Monday.

I’m one of those Google Readerheads who has stuck with the service to the bitter end. No erstwhile replacement has yet been able to match Google Reader’s killer combo of simplicity, flexibility, speed and Google-grade search.

I have to choose a new reader, though, so I have spent weeks kicking the tires on roughly four dozen supposed Google Reader successors.

Some are awful. A few are pretty good. One of these (which I’ll name later) is awesome, though flawed.

It’s nice to have so many choices. It’s tragic that the majority are close to worthless.

What’s more, this field is almost fatally fragmented. Google Reader until now had served as the back end for the majority of RSS readers on all platforms. This meant you could hop from reader app to reader app on a desktop or mobile device with the greatest of ease until you found an RSS app that suited you.

Google, by shutting down Reader, has created one hell of a mess. It has punted its responsibility as the caretaker of the thriving ecosystem it created, and inconvenienced millions who had placed their trust in it.

For shame, Googleplex, for shame.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Your first order of business, before you select a Google Reader replacement, is to export your data from Google Reader before it’s too late. (Update: you have through July 15 to do this.)

This is simple. Go to Google Takeout’s Reader page and click the “create archive” button. After a short wait, you will be able to download a ZIP file containing your feeds, the people you follow, starred items and so on.

Most of this is of no interest to me. I only care about the feed file. Once unzipping the archive, you’ll find the file, called subscriptions.xml, in a folder. Put the file in a safe place. You’ll need it (probably more than once).

MY READER CRITERIA

Though I love Google Reader, I’m well aware it’s imperfect. There is lots of room for improvement, and the Web app’s demise has given makers of Reader replacements an opening to innovate.

Google Reader users have dared to dream, too.

Almost from the moment Google announced it would shutter Reader, I’ve been daydreaming about what my dream RSS reader would look like.

Over the weeks and months, as Reader replacements burst on the scene and improved in sophistication and reliability, I became more and more optimistic about finding a worthy home for my feeds.

What are my criteria for a perfect RSS reader?

Speed, baby, speed.

Keep it simple, please. That is one of Google Reader’s strong suits. It has just the features it needs, and nothing more.

Search. Early on, the search giant’s reader was ridiculed for not having search. It later created a powerful search engine that hunts through your feeds for whatever you want. This feature is a must for any RSS reader. Sadly, it is mostly MIA.

Elegance. To paraphrase Google’s famed mantra: Don’t be ugly. Google isn’t ugly, but it looks utilitarian. There’s a lot of room for improvement in the aesthetics arena.

Display options. Google Reader is limited in how it displays feed items. It has a headline view and full view. That’s it. A reader that has more display options, such as a magazine view and a card view, represents a big improvement.

Sharing options. Google Reader likes to share. It’s easy to send items to Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and more. This is a crucial element in any well-rounded reader. The more share options, the better.

Cross-platform compatibility. Any reader that works on just in one desktop or mobile environment is disqualified in my book. There are some nice Mac-only options out there, for instance, but I am ignoring them even though I am kind of an Apple guy.

Make it free. I’m a cheapskate, I will confess, and some promising reader options are available for modest fees. With so many free options available, though, I am holding out for the equivalent of Google Reader, which has never cost a cent.

An app for that? On the desktop, I’ve typically accessed Google Reader in Web form via a browser (generally Google’s Chrome). When using a mobile device, though, I am likelier to use a native app. Virtually all such RSS-reader apps have been Google Reader-friendly.

The reader I choose must have Web-app capability on the desktop along with one or more decent mobile apps – either the service’s own offering, or compatibility with apps made by others. A killer desktop app is a plus, but not a necessity.

A future. Most RSS readers don’t have one. They’re virtual unknowns, short on resources, all but guaranteed to flame out. So my chosen reader will either be from a well-established Internet or software firm – or from a nimble newcomer that has shown itself to be unusually innovative, resourceful, buzz-worthy and wicked-cool.

Nailing all of the above criteria is a tall order. None have, but a few come close.

A VAST READER FIELD

Dozens and dozens of Google Reader replacements are available, as I’ve mentioned. I won’t try to list them all here since others have already done this.

Click, here, here, here and here for comprehensive listings. Prepare to be amazed at the variety, and appalled at how bad some of these options are.

I spent hours and hours trying out the readers on these lists. In some cases, I could log into my Google account from within the app and import my subscriptions directly. In other cases, I had to import my subscriptions.xml file manually in order to access my feeds.

Often, these imports failed. Either my feeds would import incompletely, or wouldn’t import at all even though I made a point to leave the reader in question churning on the chore overnight.

What a mess. Thanks a bunch, Google.

MY READER FINALISTS

I eventually narrowed my vast list of RSS readers to a few promising candidates.

Some of these are impressive, but none meet all my criteria. Native apps for mobile devices are scarce, for instance. So is superior design, for the most part. Performance and reliability is often an issue, too. My search for search was in vain.

Without further ado, and in no particular order:

AOL Reader. The venerable America Online came out of nowhere with a really nice Web reader that has multiple views, an attractive look, decent speed, robust sharing, and a lot of promise. Native iOS and Android apps are said to be in the works, along with other features such as search, feed export, notifications and more.

Digg Reader. Among the most-prominent Google Reader replacements, Digg Reader is a marvel of minimalism. I adore its clean design. It doesn’t have a ton of features yet – viewing and sharing options are limited, for instance – but it is the best option for those wanting an RSS reader that won’t get in their way.

Yoleo Reader. This, along with the AOL and Digg readers, is one of my favorites. With a clean, colorful, highly readable interface, Yoleo is a pleasure to use. It has an unusual three-column design: folders on the left, feed items on the right, reading pane in the center. It’s weird, but it works.

MultiPLX. This Web app won’t win any beauty contests, but it has high readability and tons of sharing options. It offers up headline, snippet and card views.

Hive. A bit on the sluggish side, Hive still is one to watch. It has public sharing and liking, profile pages, a “HiveMined” list of suggested articles, a clean design, keyboard navigation and more. A lot of items, like bookmarklets and sophisticated feed management, are in the “coming soon” column … but I’m keeping an eye on this one.

Bloglines. I had to hold my nose when using this Web app because it’s appearance is putrid.

It redeems itself with a unique, flexible and powerful view that puts every feed in a box, each with a list of headlines corresponding to that feed. The boxes are customizable and have a ton of sharing options, including even Flipboard, Hootsuite and Yammer. Why the sharing pane looks so nice when the rest looks so awful is a mystery for the ages.

Bloglovin’. This Web app, like Curata, is limited in how it displays feeds, but looks great. Performance is a bit poor, though, and glitches abound (like when I click the share button in a feed item and nothing happens).

G2reader. The name says it all: This reader aspires to be the next-generation Google Reader. Its attempt at a distinctive look and feel falls a bit flat, though, and it shares only to Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Like Google Reader, it has only headline and full views.

The Old Reader. This one is very much like G2Reader, but sharing options are scarce.

Readable.cc. This reader has a unique look and feel that is just a row of headlines in a large, highly readable typeface that works nicely. Use a pull-down menu at the top to access feed folders.

Pulse. Best known in its mobile-app form, the popular Pulse has a Web interface that imitates the apps’ tiled format. Each feed item is a tile that displays an image from the post.

Pulse looks great, but it’s not for power users. Since my Google Reader folders (like “Apple”) are jam-packed with feeds, Pulse unhelpfully broke my folders into subfolders (“Apple1,” “Apple2” and so on). That’s a dealbreaker.

MochaRoll. Kindasorta the Pinterest of RSS readers, MochaRoll is big on visuals and appears to be courting the female demographic aggressively (I am not sure why since its design would appeal to anyone). It is a bit buggy, and navigation needs to be refined, but I’m cautiously optimistic about this one.

WebReader. This is the only reader I found that uses Adobe AIR for its desktop app. This means it works identically on Macintosh and Windows. AIR can be an acquired taste for some, but I don’t mind it. WebReader also has native mobile apps for iOS, Android and even the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The apps are functional but far from pretty.

FlowReader. This reader emulates the look and feel of Google+ and also reminds me a bit of Curata. It has headline and full views, along with a ton of sharing options (including App.net and Pinboard). FlowReader even integrates your Twitter and Facebook streams, and gives you several display options for these.

THIS IS MY NEW READER

The best Google Reader replacement overall? It’s Feedly, unquestionably. This isn’t even close.

I first discovered Feedly in its mobile-app form, which is superb. That led me to its Web interface, which is fantastic but far from perfect.

Feedly’s design aesthetic is first-rate. It has multiple viewing options for feeds, ranging from a headline view and full view to magazine and card options. Feedly even has themes.

It has a decent selection of sharing options, but they’re a bit disorganized. Some are in one place, others are somewhere else. A handful are a pain to use, requiring multiple clicks.

Feedly has decent feed-organizing controls. I also offers a terrific content-discovery mechanism via a feed store of sorts that has themed hubs for easily finding what you want.

Performance has been an issue, but is getting better.

Accessing Feedly on the desktop once required browser extensions, but no longer. Just go here.

Feedly even has buttons for those who want to put subscribe-to-Feedly links on their sites and blogs (as I have).

More fundamentally, Feedly leads the pack because of its impressive efforts to create its own RSS-reader ecosystem (the so-called “Feedly Cloud”) to replace the Google Reader ecosystem.

Feedly’s ecosystem is Google-based, if no longer Google Reader-based, so it will have instant appeal to Google Reader diehards.

On mobile, Feedly support is built in to a variety of other apps if you don’t want to use the Feedly apps (iPhone version shown above). These include (now or soon), Reeder for iOS and Mac, Newsify for iOS, NextGen Reader for Windows 8 and Windows 8 Phone, and gReader for Android.

It’s not an RSS reader in the conventional sense, but more of a digital magazine with fun-to-flip electronic pages (hence the name), but it can import and display your Google Reader feeds. Best of all, it’s available for iPhone, iPad, Android and, soon, Windows 8.

I’ve been a heavy Flipboard user for a while, and I plan to use it alongside Feedly for staying on top of my Web reading.